Modernizing Melodrama
January 9 – March 11, 2009
Curated by Laurel Bradley and Carol Donelan
with contributions by students enrolled in CAMS 226: The Melodramatic Imagination (fall 2008).

Modernizing Melodrama explores the history and persistence of melodrama as a popular mode of visual storytelling in the American tradition, emphasizing pathos, sensational action, and stereotypical characterizations of virtue and villainy. The exhibition introduces representative ideas and powerful stories through film clips, stage posters and lobby cards, mass media, documentary and artistic photographs, and experimental works by contemporary artists.